VA - This Can't Be Today, American Psychedelia & The Paisley Underground 1977-1988 (3 x CDs)

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VA - This Can't Be Today, American Psychedelia & The Paisley Underground 1977-1988 (3 x CDs)

This Can't Be Today, American Psychedelia & The Paisley Underground 1977-1988 pulls together a period that often gets split into scenes and labels, but here it’s allowed to sit as a continuous thread. Covering the late seventies into the late eighties, the set doesn’t treat psychedelia as revival or nostalgia. It comes through as something being reworked in real time, shaped by new bands who were absorbing older forms without trying to replicate them outright.

The early stretch leans into that in-between space. There’s a sense of rediscovery, where jangle, reverb, and melodic drift start to reappear, but with a tighter, more grounded feel than the original wave. The sequencing keeps things close enough that connections form naturally, guitars ring across tracks, voices stay slightly detached, and rhythm sections hold things steady underneath. As it moves forward, the Paisley Underground side becomes more defined, not as a separate chapter but as a gradual sharpening of ideas. Songs feel more structured, arrangements more deliberate, and the interplay between light and shade becomes more pronounced. Nothing breaks sharply, it all accumulates.

The set works through feel rather than argument. Tracks build on each other, small details start to echo, and a wider picture comes into focus. What stays with it is how these bands carried a language forward, not by preserving it, but by letting it shift just enough to remain alive within a different time. (B)

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Track lists

CD1

01 Last - She Don't Know Why I'm Here 3:31

02 Plasticland - Office Skills 1:46

03 Bangs - Getting Out of Hand 2:16

04 Chris Bell - I Am The Cosmos 3:43

05 Fans - True 3:20

06 dB's - Nothing is Wrong (Demo) 4:07

07 Green on Red - Death and Angels 2:17

08 Unclaimed - Deposition Central (The Acid Song) 4:10

09 Vertebrats - Left in the Dark 3:25

10 Dream Syndicate - Sure Thing (Live at KPFK) 4:49

11 R.E.M. - Gardening at Night 3:31

12 Action Now - Try 2:52

13 Tommy Keene - Mr. Roland 5:43

14 Translator - Nothing is Saving Me 5:17

15 R. Stevie Moore - I Go Into Your Mind 2:12

16 Al Bloch - Hangin' Around 3:41

17 Long Ryders - And She Rides 4:32

18 Wednesday Week - Sad Little Dog 2:31

19 Rain Parade - What She's Done to Your Mind 2:57

20 True West - Steps to The Door 3:17

21 Point - Magic Circle 1:54

22 Wire Train - Everything’s Turning Up Down Again 3:34

23 Darius and The Magnets - Saturday at 3:00 P.M. 3:31

CD2

01 Rain Parade - This Can't Be Today 4:38

02 Plan 9 - White Women 3:01

03 Redd Kross - Citadel 3:00

04 Droogs - For These Remaining Days 2:25

05 Plasticland - Euphoric Trapdoor Shoes 2:35

06 Dream Syndicate - Mr Soul (Live at KPFK) 3:30

07 Bangles - The Real World 2:36

08 Long Ryders - Too Close to The Light 4:13

09 Three O'Clock - Her Head's Revolving 3:13

10 Pandoras - It's About Time 2:24

11 Reverbs - Picture an Eye 4:31

12 Twisted - Sheez Wycked 2:06

13 Naked Prey - The Story Never Ends 4:13

14 Meat Puppets - Plateau 2:23

15 Eyes of Mind - With You Again 3:55

16 Tell - Tale Hearts - Come and Gone 3:05

17 Dreams So Real - Everywhere Girl 3:55

18 Impossible Years - Flower Girl 4:09

19 Thee Fourgiven - Anything 4:32

20 Prime Movers - True to Me 3:53

21 Suburban Nightmare - Every Night 3:23

22 Yard Trauma - Must've Been Something I Took Last Night 3:27

23 Romans - Vicki Seventy 2:37

CD3

01 United States of Existence - Welcome Tomorrow 3:20

02 28th Day - 25 Pills 3:24

03 Dumptruck - Back Where I Belong (2024 Mix) 4:02

04 Husker Du - Hardly Getting Over It 6:09

05 Flaming Lips - With You 3:40

06 Game Theory - Regenisraen 3:31

07 Thin White Rope - The Three Song 3:36

08 Camper Van Beethoven - Circles 2:52

09 Drivin' N Cryin' - Count The Flowers 2:58

10 Things - You Can't Deliver 3:57

11 Flying Color - Dear Friend (Single Version) 3:19

12 Winter Hours - Hyacinth Girl 4:39

13 Steppes - Sky is Falling 5:09

14 Green Pajamas - Kim The Waitress 6:07

15 Mod Fun - Hope It's Today 3:39

16 Inn - What's it Like 3:46

17 Absolute Grey - For Some Reason 3:06

18 Dead Moon - Graveyard 2:32

19 Cynics - Took Her Hand 2:45

20 Sneetches - Home Again 2:40

21 Ultra Vivid Scene - Mercy Seat 4:07

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Music weaves itself into the fabric of our emotions, dances through the corridors of memory, and whispers to the soul of who we are. Sharing these stories deepens the connection, turning the experience into something timeless and profound.

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